The thematic panels feature academic papers and research-based submissions that interrogate pressing challenges through varied disciplinary and methodological perspectives under the broad theme of social equity. Each panel is curated around a shared theme to foster focused discussion and dialogue, encouraging participants to engage critically with overlapping questions of inequality, reform, and transformation. This format emphasizes the practical implications of research and provides an opportunity for dissemination of critical findings to an audience of peer-researchers and relevant practitioners. It highlights the intersections between data and lived experience, research and representation, and ultimately seeks to promote evidence-based policymaking and practical use of research findings.